1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to layered articles, and more particularly, to verification of layered article data preparation.
2. Related Art
There are a variety of applications where an article is used to create a product is formed by a number of design layers. Exemplary applications include: glass or metal etching and semiconductors. In these applications, data preparations are created to direct the construction of an article, e.g., a tool such as a screen(s), template(s) or mask(s), used to create the final product or for the actual final product. For instance, in terms of semiconductor masks, data preparations representative of particular treatments of design layers to be used to build the mask are created. Each application may have its own unique manner of indicating what treatments are necessary. In any application, knowing whether a data preparation will create the desired product is critical in preventing wasted resources.
Unfortunately, many of the articles used in these applications are fairly complex because of, for example, the large number of design layers, the requirement for a number of discrete segments (e.g., 106+), and different requirements for each layer and/or segment. The complexity makes test runs too time-consuming and expensive. In addition, relative to semiconductors, masks are oftentimes built in a different location than where manufacturing will occur, which further prevents test runs.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for improved verification of a data preparation for articles constructed of multiple design layers.